Consuming Architecture: On the Occupation, Appropriation and Interpretation of Buildings

Projecting forward in time from the processes of design and construction that are so often the focus of architectural discourse, Consuming Architecture examines the variety of ways in which buildings are consumed after they have been produced, focusing in particular on processes of occupation, appropriation and interpretation. Drawing on contributions by architects, historians, anthropologists, literary critics, artists, film-makers, photographers and journalists, it shows how the consumption of architecture is a dynamic and creative act that involves the creation and negotiation of meanings and values by different stakeholders and that can be expressed in different voices. In so doing, it challenges ideas of what constitutes architecture, architectural discourse and architectural education, how we understand and think about it, and who can claim ownership of it.

Consuming Architecture is aimed at students in architectural education and will also be of interest to students and researchers from disciplines that deal with architecture in terms of consumption and material culture.

Daniel Maudlin is Professor of Modern History, Department of History and Art History,　Plymouth University, UK, where he teaches social and material culture approaches to architectural history. He previously taught history and cultural theory to architecture students at Plymouth University’s School of Architecture, Design and Environment. He has also taught at the Universities of Glasgow, Pennsylvania and St Andrews.

Marcel Vellinga is Reader in Anthropology of Architecture and Director of the Place, Culture and Identity research group in the School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University. Holding a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Leiden University (the Netherlands), his teaching and research is concerned with the anthropological study of architecture, vernacular architecture and architectural regeneration. His publications include Atlas of Vernacular Architecture of the World, with Paul Oliver (Routledge 2007); Vernacular Architecture in the 21st Century: Theory, Education, and Practice, with Lindsay Asquith (eds.)(Taylor and Francis 2006) and Constituting Unity and Difference: Vernacular Architecture in a Minangkabau Village (KITLV Press 2004) and various journal articles. Marcel is a Director of the Paul Oliver Vernacular Architecture Library.